At the Sept. 4, 2025 Senate oversight hearing, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once again argued that he has the prescription that will fix the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and America’s health problems.

I was a health care provider for 40 years. If I practiced like Kennedy, my license would have been restricted or revoked. Kennedy commits daily malpractice.

As Maine’s Dr. Nirav Shah recently well described it, Kennedy and his acolytes are engaged in a “wellness grift.” Kennedy takes Americans’ fears about autism, the health of their children, the obesity epidemic and the commodification of medicine to promise quick and easy fixes.

Remember finding the cause of autism by September? He also uses the same concerns to attack the dedicated CDC and NIH professionals and researchers who are honestly trying and often succeeding in improving our health.

Kennedy is particularly skilled in his provision of outright misinformation (autism, Alzheimer’s disease, measles, complex decisions on depression treatment in pregnancy) and half-truths. As an example of the latter, he trumpets $50 billion in new funding for rural hospitals, including Maine’s, without mention that $100 billion is being removed. 

Like most grifters, he takes umbrage and engages in attacks when confronted with facts and when called out on his own statements. Is he finally coming to accountability? If he does not resign, he should be forcibly removed. Next there can be an effort to rehire the unjustly fired employees who have been standing up for what is true and right.

Ronald Bailyn
Cape Elizabeth